Policeman gets £5,000 compensation

A Policeman has been awarded £5,000 by the court against the Police force for wrongful arrest.A Neighbour (who was an retired police superintendant) claimed the policeman, who was parked on the road outside his house had left his car slightly over that part of the road in front of his drive, so he phones the police who send along a number of officers, one of whom asks him to move his vehicle, which he refuses to do claiming he had been drinking the previous night.He is then handcuffed and spends 9 hours in the cells.The worst bit for me is this took place in Lancashire where we have one of the highest council tax levels in the country.........No doubt the £5,000 will come from council tax payers.

Re: Policeman gets £5,000 compensation

Thanks JimI am pleased my new friend David Cameron, *bows head*, is going to cut the police by twenty percent. They clearly are over manned and don't have enough to do.I would suggest 20% is a starting figure and the police are subject to close scrutiny to justify their budget compared to efficiency and efficacy (or not in this case).

Re: Policeman gets £5,000 compensation

I have some sympathy with views expressed here. I'm also a bit cynical about views often expressed by politicians which suggest that the Police are drowning in paperwork and that many policing problems would be solved if only they has to do less paperwork. From what I've seen of my local Police, their practices or habits are far from efficient. I live on a main road in west London so I see them in action regularly.I've no idea if the Police outside London are the same, but I don't understand why so many of the cars I see with sirens and flashing blue lights racing up and down my road every day have no Police markings and contain people (almost exlusively men, and usually a bit thuggish looking,) who do not wear uniforms. It seems like half the Police force don't want to be visible by the public, except when they're in a bit of a hurry.

Re: Policeman gets £5,000 compensation

I was recently invited to our local station to see how it operates behind the scenes. I was amazed at the amount of paperwork generated by even the simplest of cases. Many man-hours could be saved by getting rid of a lot of this and allowing the Police to get out and fight crime again. I am not saying there isn't inefficiencies but the amount of red-tape is staggering.The unmarked vehicles that you refer to alanb are generally specialist teams who need to work under cover. They will also respond to routine calls if they are not involved in anything critical and a uniformed officer is not readily available.